Assorted stuff

My birthday came and went with little fanfare.

I went to my mom's house Saturday night for dinner, which was very yummy. I ate too much, but didn't really care. There weren't as many people there as I thought there would be. It was me, Julian, Enzo, my mom, my step-dad, my sister, and one of my nieces.

My mom made me a cake and I got to blow out candles. Enzo helped with this. Sometime in the last few months, he's finally mastered the art of blowing without spitting. After the cake, I opened my "gifts," which were: a book of inspirational quotes, a card and money from my sister; and a card and money from my mom. I got my gift from Julian before the actual event. It was some lingerie from Victoria's Secret that had been intended as a Christmas gift, but was on backorder at the time. So I got something different for Christmas and then this for my birthday. Had I known at the time that we ordered the stuff that I would be getting pregnant in roughly a week, I probably would have picked something different, but oh well, you know what they say about hindsight.

Anyway, I'm proud that we made it through the evening without bringing up the trip or the baby. I gave Julian the rules of engagement on the drive out: we weren't bringing up the move unless my mom did, and we weren't telling them about the baby yet. I don't know why I'm so afraid of telling my mom we're having another baby. I guess it's the response I got when I told her the first time. When I initially told her, she was so non-excited that it was scary. No congratulations, no rejoicing over being a grandmother again, just a question: can you afford this? I can understand why she was concerned. At the time I made the big announcement, we were in the midst of getting the INS paperwork done and Julian was not working. But still, can't you give me a minute of excitement/enjoyment before you bring up the obvious?

Sunday was another pretty boring day. My last Sunday off for a while. If I haven't mentioned it here, my schedule at work is changing again. I'm going to work all weekend and be off on Monday and Tuesday. So this week is still the "old" new schedule, but next weekend I'll work both days and then be off next Monday and Tuesday. The bright side is that I have 2 days off together. The not-so-bright side is that my days off and Julian's days off are not going to be the same anymore. So he'll be at home with Enzo on Saturday and Sunday while I'm at work, then I'll be home the next 2 days while he's at work and Enzo's at school. Blah.

About my activities, I got takeout Chinese for lunch. Not from the place who came to my workplace looking for me. And with cash. No more Chinese mafia stuff for me. I did laundry. I played that Pirates! game for hours. And that was basically it. What a life.

The tattooed guy sings the ABC song

Enzo knows his ABCs now. Mostly.

I like the 'LMNOP' part.

Here he is with his Elmo tattoo and some audio of him singing. Enjoy!

See what I found today!

I was on my second trip down the main aisle at Wal Mart, to exchange "Incredibles" Pop-Tarts for "Monsters Inc." Pop-Tarts when I saw these.



Ketchup chips!

I immediately thought of comments Katrina had made about how we were missing out on these in the US. So I grabbed a bag and threw it in the cart. It was less than $1. I haven't opened them yet, but I'll keep you updated.

It's my birthday!

Tengo 28 años. I'm 28 years old today.

I took the day off from work, not because I have anything special planned, but just because. I need to do laundry and go to the grocery store. We're going to my mom's house for dinner tonight. She's cooking my requests for dinner: salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and corn. I know, it's kinda weird, but give me a break: I'm pregnant.

I still haven't told my side of the family the whole story about the move and the pregnancy. I'm not enthusiastic in the least about telling them, because I already know that the response is going to be the polar opposite from Julian's family. Is it too much to ask that your family give you at least a moment of celebration when you make what should be an exciting announcement?

I have been so tired lately. Last night I fell asleep around 7:30 and woke up this morning at about 6:45. I didn't mean to sleep that long, but I felt like I needed it. I didn't even have dinner last night, but I was really stuffed from lunch. We had a potluck at work and I ate too much.

My financial woes are resolving themselves it seems. The Chinese restaurant that showed up unannounced at work a couple of weeks ago about the NSF check sent the check to the prosecuting attorney. The notice I received was dated 20 Jan and I was given 10 days to pay before a warrant would be issued. Nice. I paid that yesterday, but it just makes me sick to know that a $20 check cost me $64, plus the bank fee when it was returned. I was able to make payment arrangements on the lawsuit thing, $100/month starting on 1 Feb. I'll get myself out of this.

Lots accomplished today

I made my first pre-natal appointment today. I go in at 3:00 on 16 February. If this goes like last time, I should have an ultrasound of a blob to share at that point. And according to my husband, I'm now "officially" pregnant. I guess making the appointment is the delineation.

His parents have been made aware of our planned move and the pregnancy, and are excited, but concerned. They're going to be on the lookout for apartments in BA for us, although they'll be out of the country for 5 months. They're going to Chile to house-sit for a while. Julian is also enlisting the help of his friends back home in looking for apartments and job leads.

I told my mom about the possibility of us moving to Argentina, but didn't really give a time frame. Her only comment was whether we'd be better off there or here. I haven't told her that we're pregnant again, because I can't imagine that she'll be thrilled. When I told her about Enzo, rather than saying how excited she was or congratulating me, she was really indifferent and asked if we'd be able to afford a child. Thanks for the encouragement, mom.

It seems that the plans are in motion now. And Julian's plan is to be in Argentina before I give birth in September. Wow. That's just a few months away. I'm excited, a little nervous, but most of all, ready for a new start with my newly-enlarged family in Buenos Aires!

Is there anything good happening in Iraq?

I know this is a week old now, but these images still disturb me, as I would imagine they do most people.

I have to warn you, before you click the link, they're graphic. They were taken by a photographer in Tal Afar of a car that was approaching a US patrol that did not stop when it was requested to. The soldiers opened fire on the car, killing both passengers in the front, apparently a mother and father. Their children were in the car with them, in the back. One child was injured in the incident as well. The photo that really stuck with me was the one of the young girl with her hands covered in her family's blood.

Que triste...

A boring day off

My audio post is lost

I had posted an audioblog post earlier today, around an hour ago. It's nowhere to be found. Hmmm. It told me that it posted successfully. Maybe it will show up later, but that's unlikely.
The highlight of the audio was seeing an old lady walking on the sidewalk with her invisible dog. Yes, the plastic collar. I was a little freaked out.

My other point was that I was coming home after dropping everyone else off at their appointed places to get into proofreading my husband's book. I'm on page 83 of 218. Hopefully I can get this finished up today. I'd like to go out for a bit this afternoon and maybe take some photos. We'll see how it goes.

I still haven't opened the book I got last week, but my husband has read most of it. He informed me that there will be a lot of words that I don't know and thinks I'm crazy for ordering a book in Spanish. It's a learning experience for me. I'm trying to learn Spanish, but it's hard when I'm not taking a class in school and my best resource (my Spanish-speaking husband) doesn't want to speak to me in Spanish.

Well, getting back to the book. Gotta finish my work before I can go play.

Johnny Carson is dead at age 79

From what I've gathered, he died sometime this morning. I'm not sure of the exact time or place, or even cause. There will be no memorial service.

This was a bit of a shock for me. I grew up with Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon. I knew I had hit the big time when I was able to stay up late enough to watch the Tonight Show. I loved hearing Ed say, "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" and Johnny emerging from behind the multi-coloured curtain to give his monologue. I'm sure I didn't fully appreciate a lot of what was said at the time, but I was so excited just to be awake.

Thank you, Johnny for giving me a reason to want to stay up late at night. You'll be missed.

So tired

I'm finally starting to feel pregnant. I'm exhausted...constantly. I went to bed at about 8:30 last night, and I took a nap this evening. I'm also experiencing a little bit of "morning sickness," although that's really not the proper term, since it strikes at any time of the day.

I had to tell my supervisor at work about my pregnancy earlier than I had intended to because of all my trips to the bathroom. In a normal workplace it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but since our bathroom trips are being monitored both for frequency and duration, I decided to nip any speculation in the bud and just come clean.

My birthday is a week from tomorrow. I'll be 28. I'm not as excited about my birthday as I was when I was younger. I feel like there's really no big milestones left. When I was younger, it was all about turning 14 so I could get my driving permit, 16 to get my licence, 18 to be "legal" and vote, 21 to legally drink, 25 so my insurance rates would drop...what is there from here? 30, 40, 50...? Not much exciting about that to me, other than staying alive for another year or 10.

This is my first full week on my new schedule, so I have to work tomorrow. I was excited this morning when I realised it was Friday, but the excitement soon waned when that realisation was superceded by another...I have to work tomorrow. I'm trying to get it into my head that I can't stay up late any more on Fridays, not that I'll have any trouble getting to sleep, I'm sure. It's just a whole mind-set shift. Going from "Woo-hoo! It's Friday, the start of the weekend!" to "It's Friday and I have to work tomorrrow."

Something all Americans should be concerned about: Social Security

I don't even know where to begin on this topic. First of all, Social Security is not as bad off as the current administration would like us as Americans to believe. Using the word "crisis" is really unfounded. It's like what happened with the Saddam Hussein/Iraq issue, saying that we knew that he had WMDs and that if we didn't get in there and neutralise him, he'd be coming after us.

If the administration succeeds in selling the "crisis" of Social Security, the people who will pay won't be the politicians, but us average Joes as we approach retirement. There are so many people who depend on Social Security for all or part of their income after retirement. Privatisation is not the answer. It ties the retirement funds of an individual to the stock market, which is basically what Social Security was set up to avoid. It was created in response to the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression to provide for members of society who were unable to work because of age or disability. What if the market is on a downswing when your retirement comes and you end up with less money than what you started out with? The stock market can be a great source of income for those who choose to invest in that manner. Social Security needs to remain a government-supported system.

I've had personal experience with Social Security. It does what it intends: my step-father has been getting a Social Security check for years because of a disability, my mother recently started getting her Social Security check and still working part-time, and finally, I received a monthly check from the time my father died until I graduated from high school. I know that was welcome money in our household at a difficult time and it made things a little easier on my mother so she wasn't worried about making ends meet.

And my final thought: what if there's another stock market crash? Do we really want to subject our retirement money to that possibility?

My father was alive during the Great Depression, and my mother was born shortly afterward. I know that this had a profound impact on their lives, to this very day. My mother doesn't want to throw anything away. She washes butter tubs and Ziploc bags to reuse them. I think we need to keep the memory of those times alive so we don't end up there again.

Here's a link for anyone interested: There is No Crisis

Does money talk?

Tomorrow is Not One Damn Dime Day. The premise is not to spend any money for 24 hours in a boycott of sorts to speak out about our displeasure in Bush and the way he's handled the situation in Iraq. From their website:

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

Will anyone take notice if enough people participate?

Mail call!

Today is my new day off, and I got mail today! Woo-hoo! I got my new book that I ordered ages ago, at least it seems that way -- it was at the end of my vacation.

It's Santa Evita.



I also got the second lingerie item that was on backorder at Victoria's Secret from before Christmas. I don't know how much good it's going to do me now. I really like it, and I'll probably keep it for later. I suppose I could wear it now, before my belly gets too big.

I'm back to my book editing now. I'm almost halfway done already! Hopefully I can finish this week.

Did CNN get something wrong?

I was reading a story about the events surrounding the inauguration of Dubya and I saw this sentence:

First twins Jenna and Laura Bush are expected to attend.

I thought Laura was Dubya's wife. Aren't their daughters Jenna and Barbara? I guess no one's perfect, but just thought it was funny that such an easily-researched fact would be posted wrong.

I may be posting a little less frequently

in the next few days. I have a task, and that's to complete proofreading my husband's book, so we can find some representation for the behemoth and hopefully get it published.

We had a talk last night and he wants to try to get the book published in the first half of this year so that we could use any money from that to aid in our move, either for moving expenses, or expenses after we arrive.

Julian also mentioned that he's going to email friends and family at home to get a network of people on the lookout for an apartment and jobs for us. I think at some point, after we get there, we might have his parents move in with us if they are amenable. I know he wants to do whatever he can to help them out after all they've done for us from afar. They've been more supportive of us than my family has, and they're on another continent.

I'm a little apprehensive about the move now that I've found out there's another family member on the way. I still want to move, and so does Julian, but now if we stay on schedule for the move, we'll have another person to buy a plane ticket for and also get a passport for. He mentioned moving before I have baby 2. In order for that to happen, I'll have to super-fast-forward my plans, but I suppose it's do-able.

I'll keep you posted. I'm going to try to get as much proofreading done tonight and tomorrow on my new day off. It will be an Enzo-free day, so it should be fairly productive.

The smell of KFC

is like a siren song to me when I'm pregnant. I normally don't eat at KFC, but for some reason the cocktail of hormones coursing through my body makes it like haute cuisine. To summarize, on Friday afternoon, I stopped to put gas in the car. It happens that the gas station is next to a KFC and the wind was blowing just right, so the scent of KFC wafted over to where I was standing. It reminded me of those cartoons, where the scent of something is visible and has a finger beckoning one to follow it to its source.

So that put the idea in my head. I've been obsessed with it since then, and I finally fulfilled my desire today. It's not so much the chicken itself as the side dishes. I ate my cole slaw, my mashed potatoes, my biscuit, and Julian's coleslaw as well. I know that all that stuff comes out of a big tub somewhere and is probably horrible for you. But it was good while it lasted, and my KFC craving is out of the way.

I finally read the manual for my camera

And I discovered features that I have but didn't know about. Julian is trying to use this as an argument against a new camera. I'm still pro-new camera.

Here's an experiment with a slightly longer exposure, no flash, and some movement.

It's a beer sign in a bar window.

I wasn't expecting this

But I'm expecting...



I'm apparently about 5 weeks pregnant, with an expected due date around 14 September. Wow.

Bathhouses and hot springs

First, the hot springs:


The water comes out of the ground at an average temperature of 143°F.


The warmth of the water was a nice contrast to the cool air today. Just standing near these pools, I could feel the warmth rising up.


The Tunnel Spring behind the Maurice Bathhouse.


A drinking spring behind the Maurice Bathhouse.


Another source of steaming water, this time with a basin shaped like a shell. I love the growth that seems to follow anywhere the water flows.


A steaming fountain. I don't think I've seen one of these before. The water is coming from the hot spring.

And now for the bathhouses:


The Superior Bathhouse was originally built in 1883. The structure you see here was built in 1916, replacing the previous structure with the same name, and is currently being renovated.


The Hale Bathhouse was originally built in 1892, and remodelled twice, once in 1916, and again in 1938. The 1938 modifications changed the structure from Neoclassical to Spanish Revival. It is also being renovated.


The Maurice Bathhouse was built on the same site as a former bathhouse. The Maurice opened in 1912, and was remodelled in 1915. This bathhouse also had a rooftop garden and a therapeutic pool.


A detail of some stained glass from the side of the Maurice. This bathhouse is also in the process of being renovated.


The Fordyce Bathhouse was built in 1915. It is the largest, most ornate structure on bathhouse row. I particularly like the design in the brickwork, and the terra cotta work around the windows.


Here's a closer view of the entry, with the copper and stained glass.


And one of the windows.


And finally, a view of the inside. They are not responsible for valuables.

In case you can't tell, this is the one bathhouse that's already restored. It serves as the visitor center. They were already closed by the time I got there, or else I would have gone nuts inside, since you can walk all through the place.

There are other bathhouses on down the row, but we didn't make it to see all of them. It was starting to get dark and Enzo was getting crabby. So, you have 4 more bathhouses to see at some point.

I have a couple of other pictures of miscellaneous buildings to share:



The Malco Theatre, built in 1935. It was redecorated and reopened in 1962. The Malco is now home to the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, which has an annual festival.


The Arlington Hotel was built in 1924 and was designed by the same architects who designed the Fordyce bathhouse. It still functions as a hotel, and is a very nice place to stay.

I hope you enjoyed my trip to Hot Springs. It's a neat place to go, and it seems like downtown Hot Springs has more older intact buildings than we do in Little Rock. And the best part about these older buildings is that someone knows the history of them. Maybe it's the fact that it's part of the National Park system. The area around the hot springs and the bathhouses was established as a National Park on 4 March 1921. It's the oldest National Park currently in the system.

Hot Springs

If you listened to my previous post, then you know that I went to Hot Springs today. Hot Springs is about 55 miles to the southwest of Little Rock, a very easy day trip.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to see and photograph, but since I had Enzo with me, things didn't turn out exactly as I had planned. I got pictures of quite a bit, but I'll have to make another trip to get the rest, maybe on a Tuesday off when Enzo's at daycare.

So, with no further adieu, the photos...

Photo of Hot Springs (and beyond) taken from the summit of West Mountain.

The Park Hotel on Fountain Street.
Formerly a luxury hotel, its current owners are in the process of restoring it. The metal doors and windows are original. I'm not sure exactly when it was built, I'm guessing the 1910s, since that seems to be the general era when the neighbouring buildings were constructed.

Mule Trolley Mural
On the side of a building on Central Avenue, across the street from the bathhouses.
I took this photo primarily at the request of Enzo, who liked the "horsies."

Road Trip!

Ticket stuff

I'm still investigating my options to fly to Argentina this winter. I found a site, ArgentinaSpecial, that has the lowest prices I've seen yet.

For a flight 29 Nov, returning on 5 December, the cost for the three of us is listed as $3075.27. The airline isn't identified, it just shows "Major US Airline", but the flights all route through DFW, so I'm going to guess it's AA. That's not a bad price, really. It's about $500 cheaper than what I've found up to this point.

Even the flight identified as being on AA is cheaper than what I found so far, at $3282.95.

I'm still looking.

Sunset today

A couple of reasons I like to always have my camera:



Seeing the image of the beautiful sunset reflected in my car window.



The colour of the clouds over my apartment as I walked in.

Just thought I'd share.

I ranted until Audioblogger cut me off...

Listen if you dare.

43 Things

My list of some things I want to do. It's kind of lame, but what can I say?

Weather

The weather has been really strange the last couple of days; our highs have made it into the low 70s F. We're now in a severe thunderstorm watch until 23:00, and have a lake wind advisory until 04:00 tomorrow. It's currently about 69°F, and the low today is supposed to be about 50°F. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be about 50°F, and the low 30°F.

This is tornado weather. It was all everyone was talking about during the day when I was out for my break. I'm going to hope for the best, but I have my flashlights gathered up in case we lose power.

I really don't like the weather here because it changes too much. I'd just like to decide on a season and stick with it for at least a week.

What a wonderful day!

I'm only kidding, of course. Today was a bad day in the financial life of Carrie. Of course, I didn't know this until I got off work.

On my way to the daycare, I got a call from a rep at a collection agency. He was calling about an account that I had made payment arrangements on and the check for the final payment was not honoured by my bank. I explained to him that I would call him back when I got home, that I was in the car. He acted like I was just trying to get him off the phone, which I'm sure a lot of people do to collections reps, but I really wasn't in a position to discuss my account. So I told him that I would be home in about 30 minutes, and I would call him, and if he hadn't heard from me in 30 minutes, that he would call me back.

So I pick up Enzo and go home. I get home and my husband asks me to go to our bedroom, where he retrieves some papers and says "This came for you a few minutes ago." I look at it and it's a summons, that a lawsuit has been filed against me in civil court. It's a balance from a credit card, that got referred to a collection agency, and now apparently to a lawyer. I remember the letters from the collection agency a few months ago, that if I didn't make arrangements by x date, it would be referred to an attorney. I tried to contact them, but to no avail. The way their phone system is set up, it doesn't refer you to the first available operator. You have to enter an extension. So I entered the extension from my letter, and it would ring and ring and ring, until I got forwarded back to the main message asking for the extension I was trying to reach. No voicemail. I tried on different days, different times of the day, but the same thing happened each time. I even tried after the supposed "cut-off" date, and the same thing happened. You would think that if they wanted to collect the money that badly, they would make it easier for consumers to reach someone. But that's beside the point. So the last correspondence I received on this was back in September, from the collection agency. I've actually been carrying this notice around in my purse for all these months, so I could try to call from work from time to time. Then today I received the summons. Should the attorney's office not have contacted me prior to filing a lawsuit? I tried to call the attorney's office at the number listed on the summons and left a voicemail.

I am so frustrated at this point. I know that I owe the money, I've had some financial difficulties because of my husband being unemployed for almost a year, and all my other creditors have been understanding and easy to work with. This one agency is impossible to deal with, I can't talk to anyone there, and now I'm being sued. Great. Just fucking great.

I've considered bankruptcy, but I really don't have that much debt at this point, except my student loans, and my student loans wouldn't be covered anyway. I've got just about everyone paid off. My advice for college students: when you're at school, and they set up the booths to apply for credit cards...don't. When I was 18, I had more credit cards than my mother. And now, 10 years later, I'm still paying the price.

Sorry I'm late

I've had a lot on my mind the last few days. Anyway, a few days ago (has it only been a couple of days? It feels like weeks.), news of HB1677 being introduced made its way around the blogosphere, inciting a wave of commentary and emails to Delegate John Cosgrove of Virginia.

Apparently Del. Cosgrove has seen the light about the confusing wording of his bill. He's withdrawn it.

Christina Nuckols of the Virginian-Pilot has the story here.

Venton Blandin of WCAV in Charlottesville also reported this.

The issue all along was the wording of the bill, including the phrase "fetal death." Cosgrove has said that his intention was to reduce the number of babies who reached full term and then were abandoned. Good intention, wrong wording. According to Mr. Blandin, Del. Cosgrove "will probably work on another bill further down the road with the specific word “stillborn” in the its text."

A smaller, cheaper iPod

Apple has announced the iPod Shuffle, which will be flash memory-based instead of using a hard drive. There will be 2 versions, 512 MB (120 songs) for $99 and 1 GB (240 songs) for $149.

Interesting.

And you can plug it directly into a USB port on your computer to transfer your music.

Goth Girl Superhero

Goth Girl Superhero
Originally uploaded by Special.

Just wanted to share one of my favourite photos from Flickr.

I cannot take credit for photographing this one, unfortunately. It's a great shot.

If you've never been to Flickr, you should try it out. It's a great way to share photos and meet people!

Going home, but not really

I took a little time today and visited my alma mater, Hendrix College. It has changed so much since I was there. I was blown away. As the title indicates, it was kind of like going home, but it was so different that parts of the campus were unrecognizable. There are several new buildings both for classes/offices and housing.

First, the old standbys:

Trieschmann Fine Arts - where I took all my music classes, had my private music lessons, gave my recitals, and met with my advisor.



Trieschmann again, there are large windows like this on each side of the building, just out of the bounds of the previous photo. Behind these windows is the choir room, where my music history class also met.



Detail of the front of the building.



Ashtray.



Next we come to Buhler Hall, one of the science buildings. This is where all my biology classes met. I love the ivy.



Now we come to Greene Chapel and Staples Auditorium. The fountain is a new addition. There was a fountain when I was there, but it was to the right. I remember people constantly putting stuff in it. Dye, soap, you name it. It was usually coloured for the holidays, but not by the college itself.



Stained glass on the chapel.





To the right of the new fountain, is another kind of natural fountain, with water cascading over rocks into a pool.





This overlooks a large open area with benches. It's nice to sit out here in the Spring and Fall.



The area is "paved" with crushed pecan shells.



And finally, no visit would be complete without the Daihatsu. The grounds crew uses these. As a student, I hatched plans in my dorm room to commandeer one of these. I think most students did at some point in their careers at Hendrix.

Am I nuts?

ID chips in new US Passports -- a good idea?

I just read on CNN that beginning this year, new US passports will have a identification chip inside the cover. This chip will contain all the information that a paper passport contains, as well as a digitized photo and a face template for facial recognition software.

The fact that this information will be unencrypted has the ACLU alarmed. Apparently anyone with a reader within 30 feet of a passport holder could gain access to all the information on their passport. Some of the reasons for concern are identity theft, possible targeting of Americans abroad by terrorists, government tracking and monitoring, and marketing. If a retail shop put readers in their doorways, they could get the information on each person carrying one of these ID chip-enabled passports. The government could scan members at meetings to find out who's present. Scary.

At CNN, they suggest wrapping the passport in aluminum foil to prevent unauthorised reading of the card, creating a Faraday Cage. Nice.

Ick

I'm at home today, since I'm not feeling well. I decided to make use of my time here and look at travel information.

One of the things I was counting on to cut down on the cost of my travel to Argentina was the fact that I had a large pool of frequent flyer miles. I was planning to use them for at least one of our tickets. I logged in online to look at my account today, and all but 500 of my miles are gone. Expired. Dammit. So there goes that idea. There's no way that I can accumulate enough miles in the next 12 or so months to equal what I had. To get a free ticket from here to Buenos Aires, I'd need at least 40,000 miles. I had more than that. Now I have a paltry 500. I can buy miles, but only 25,000 per calendar year, and 25,000 miles costs $625. So I'm stuck.

I have an aunt and uncle who used to work in the airline industry and could get reduced or free airfare. They're both retired, so I don't know if they can still take advantage of that, especially with the state of the industry. I guess it's worth a shot to ask. It would be better than paying close to $5000 for 3 tickets.

I suppose it's better that I realised my miles are gone now, instead of in a few months when I actually went to purchase the tickets. At least I have some time to explore my alternatives. Any ideas?

Parenting advice

Buy washable crayons.

Some suggestions...

I offer some suggestions to make your next call to an 800 number more enjoyable for everyone involved:

• The person answering the phone doesn't want to know how long you were on hold before they answered. Chances are, they already know, since they can see how many calls are holding. And if you lie, they'll know. So don't try to make them feel bad that you've been on hold for 45 minutes so you'll get what you want when that person knows that there have been no calls waiting for the last 30 minutes and that you got right through.
• Have any pertinent information handy. Account number, phone number, case number, whatever it is.
  
• If you're upset about something, behave as calmly and as rationally as possible. Would you want to listen to someone yelling profanities?
  
• Get the name of the person you're speaking with, and their department and extension number or representative id if possible. This may come in handy down the line, especially if you're making changes to something on an account or requesting information. Sometimes things aren't done as promised, or aren't done...period. It may or may not be intentional, but the more information you have about the person who was supposed to do it, the easier it will be to fix.
• Don't complain about hold music to the person who answers the phone. They're powerless to change it. And as someone who's listened to a lot of hold music at several different companies, I can tell you this: it all sucks, some more than others.
• Finally, keep in mind that the voice on the other end of the line belongs to a human, someone not unlike yourself. Treat them as you'd like to be treated and things are more likely to turn out the way you'd like.

A pretty boring day at work

The highlight of my day was moving to a new desk. Part of all the changes at work have included differentiation between people who answer incoming calls and people who work on tickets. We've been assigned to different supervisory teams based on our function and moved to be with the others on our team and who are doing the same thing we are.

So I lost my desk that was near the windows overlooking the river and moved into a desk/cubelet that's more in the middle of the floor, so that I no longer have a direct view of the outdoors. I am, however, sitting near some of my coworkers with whom I have worked for over 12 months and never really had an opportunity to know, so that's a good thing. I'm also sitting beside a new guy and today was quite the question and answer segment between us. What do I do when...? How do I...? It was nice to impart some of my wisdom to a neophyte.

The other upside to all these changes is that I am no longer going to be answering inbound calls. Woo-hoo! If you've never worked in a call center, I can't begin to describe it. For one thing, you're basically bound to the phone. Schedules, breaks, lunches, meetings, and anything else is dictated by call volume or forecasted call volume. The other thing, and perhaps my biggest problem is not knowing what the next call will bring. It could be another employee calling to check on something. It could be an external caller just checking on something. It could be an external caller who's upset about something and feels the intense need to use every curse word ever invented at the loudest volume they can manage. I've developed a pretty thick skin over the last few years. I've been taking inbound calls in one form or another since 2000.

An afternoon out and about

I went out this afternoon with the intention of going to a local lock and dam that has an observation deck to look at the river, since it's a little high. Those plans were shot down when I reached the entrance and it was barricaded off for construction. I went to Riverfront Park instead and Enzo accompanied me.

We first made the requisite stop at the big eagle statue. I have more photos of this than anything else because Enzo insists that I take multiple pictures every time we see it, and insists that we stop to see it anytime we're near.



Our next stop was at the tractor that's outside of the children's museum -- The Museum of Discovery.



We walked on down through the River Market, past the River Market Pig,



past the Casa Mañana Taqueria



to get to Riverfront Park.

Once there we saw the dirty fountain. By the way, when this is cleaned up in the spring and summer it's really pretty. There are also stepping stones where you can walk over the middle pool by where the water cascades down from the top. You get a little wet from the spray, and I enjoyed this immensely when I was younger.



Our next stop was the belvedere, which sits pretty close to the riverbank and gives a nice view of the river.



Then we headed down behind the Peabody for some more viewing.

Those ducks on the top of the Peabody are lit in red neon at night and they light up consecutively. I tried to get a photo of that the night of the Christmas banquet, but my camera performs poorly in low light.



Here's the fountain behind the Peabody.



And a planter. Is it me or is this cabbage?



And finally, the reason I came out in the first place: to see how high the river was. The posts sticking out of the water along the riverbank are actually part of a railing, and have rope strung between them. That's how high the river is. The walkway is submerged along with most of the railing.